


The Beast Inside

by KrozJr



Series: Isobel Saga [4]
Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/F, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-08 07:42:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16425245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrozJr/pseuds/KrozJr
Summary: Kemble is left behind. The Doctor wants a holiday. Isobel holds a secret. Zoe will be framed. And Jamie too.I thought holidays were meant to be relaxing!





	1. Outside

** Part 1 - Outside   
**

 

The console slowly hummed as it ground to a halt. They’d landed. Following the rather traumatic experience on Kembel with the Daleks, the Doctor had decided they needed a break.

“Kollenium! Best resort in the galaxy!” He’d said. Isobel looked on the scanner; it looked like Primrose Hill on a soggy Sunday.

“Well, you know, nobody’s perfect. I might’ve been a few years out and- Isobel, where are you going?” He said in response to the picture. Isobel had gone out, camera in hand, ready to snap some pictures of the wildlife. One hand was shoved roughly in her pocket, thin, spidery black lines slowly radiating out.

“Let her be. She’ll find her way back; I gave her a pointer. It tells you which way the TARDIS is. There’s nothing dangerous on Kollenium. Come on!” The Doctor assured, and he brought Jamie and Zoe out with him.

 

“Oh my, these flowers are just exquisite!” Isobel mumbled as she walked through the forest. She absent-mindedly rubbed her thumb where something had pricked her on Kembel. Probably nothing, she thought. She slowly meandered, snapping pictures of elegant, towering trees and beautiful, sea blue moss. Suddenly, from behind her, she heard a rustle. She turned, curious, but saw nothing there.

“Hello,” She called, “anyone there?” She heard a rustle again, this time much closer. She turned again, her head strangely woozy. Still nothing. She turned back, and saw a massive jaw wide open, ready to bite. The last thing she felt was a jab on her neck, although she vaguely registered the creature that bit her slumping over, dead.

 

The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe had concluded to go to the main resort village of the town. They arrived there, and walked slowly down a wide boulevard. The Doctor wore a puzzled expression, despite the lovely sun and beautiful skies.

“What’s wrong Doctor?” Zoe enquired.

“Hmm, I’m not sure. It’s not as bustling as it is normally. Peculiar.” The Doctor asked. He looked slightly concerned. He then went across to a shop, and went in. His companions followed him.

“Hello chap, not many tourists here these days, how can I help?” The shopkeeper asked.

“Hello, why is it so empty here?” The Doctor asked, curious and inquisitive. The shopkeeper sympathetically smiled before responding “Have you not heard of the monster?”

“No. What beastie?” Jamie asked.

“Well, the monster that is out there bites you, and then…” The shopkeeper said.

“And then what?” The Doctor enquired.

“And then,” the shopkeeper said, now holding back tears, “you go mad. It got my wife. It bites you and then you’re mad. Completely batty.” Jamie and the Doctor shuddered. Zoe looked curious, but held back her tongue to avoid further upset to the shopkeeper.

 

The street was lined with big, metal shops, decorated in lucious flags of rich colour hanging from side to side or off massive metal wiring. They looked to be made of the softest silks and cottons imaginable. The street itself below was a cobbled nightmare with pavements and crossings of smooth, black asphalt. A peculiar mix for a peculiar town. The sea gently shimmered in the distance, a beautiful, rich blue. The forest towered behind them, huge firs and massive pines towering above all the buildings below.

“What are the flags for?” Zoe asked a villager. She seemed confused, then realized they were tourists, and smiled sympathetically.

“They’re for the mad. One per person, a memorial, if you wish. Oh look, another one’s going up now.” She responded. Jamie noticed that all the delicately embroidered flags had names on them, names of the insane. James, Crighton, Bella, Natalie, Tolsworth, Isobel-

Jamie stopped dead, staring at the newly put-up flag. There was a pink outline to a purple banner, which had the name ‘Isobel’ sewn in gold thread. Jamie raised this to the Doctor, who looked horrified and then asked where the mad were taken.

“Over there, next to the green moon, but why do you ask?” The villager said. For a moment, the two travellers looked bemused, before something clicked and they ran after him.

 

“Looking for an Isobel Watkins!” The Doctor shouted to the din. Nurses came and nurses went while the insane were blubbering in beds, screaming to the dark, terrified or insane.

“Yes? Who wants Isobel? She’s just admitted, I’m her nurse on duty!” A nurse shouted across the room. The Doctor immediately jumped up and waved his arms about. The two caught sight of each other, then the Doctor made his way over, Jamie and Zoe in tow.

“Here she is. Sorry if you knew her and you have to see her in this state.” The nurse said sympathetically. Isobel was laying there sadly, gently drooling, rocking her head from side to side and giggling softly while singing nursery rhymes.

 

A few hours later, the Doctor was hunched over a bench. Mixtures and solutions bubbled away. The Doctor analyzed the samples of brain fluid. Some taken from Jamie, a sort of ‘control sample’, and several tubes filled with blood and liquids from the mad. The Doctor continued his search for the chemicals, looking at Isobel’s again. There was some ‘unknown’ chemical in it, and he was struggling to identify it. It  _ seemed  _ inert, as though something had stopped it from activating. He couldn’t identify it, though. Then, the Doctor spectro-analyzed it through a diafroneter converter nalacity machine (I know), and that’s when it jumped at him. Varga venom. Isobel had been infected.

 

“Try the accused!” A judge boomed. The red and gold courtroom lay in session before him, Jamie and Zoe looking bewildered and scared. 

“The accused, named Jamie and Zoe, have been tried on several counts of attempted murder and madness. How do you plead?” The judge said.

“N- n- not g-guilt-ty, sir.” Jamie said nervously. The judge’s stare crossed the courtroom.

“Take them for… truth serum.” He said. Jamie and Zoe’s eyes widened as several guards roughly pulled them back into a dark antechamber. Silence reigned as the door was shut behind them.

 

Several minutes later, a subdued duo stepped out, movements discoordinated, eyes glassy and unfocused. The judge gestured for them to sit down.

“How do you plead?” The jury said, perfectly synchronised.

“Guilty.” Came the traveller’s replies, blank and monotone.

“We came here in a time machine.” Zoe started, the ghost of a smile fluttering over her lips in an almost pre-planned manner.

“We used it to inject chemicals into people’s bloodstreams.” Jamie continued. Most, excluding the guards and judge, gasped in shock. The judge seized the moment.

“Surely, now you see,” he said, “they admit it! And according to our law, the charge is death!” The crowd was whipped up into a frenzy as Jamie and Zoe slowly, subduedly nodded.

**Next Time: Inside**


	2. Inside

**__Part 2 - Inside   
**

 

**Last Time:** Several minutes later, a subdued duo stepped out, movements discoordinated, eyes glassy and unfocused. The judge gestured for them to sit down.

“How do you plead?” The jury said, perfectly synchronised.

“Guilty.” Came the traveller’s replies, blank and monotone.

“We came here in a time machine.” Zoe started, the ghost of a smile fluttering over her lips in an almost pre-planned manner.

“We used it to inject chemicals into people’s bloodstreams.” Jamie continued. Most, excluding the guards and judge, gasped in shock. The judge seized the moment.

“Surely, now you see,” he said, “they admit it! And according to our law, the charge is death!” The crowd was whipped up into a frenzy as Jamie and Zoe slowly, subduedly nodded.

 

The Doctor, meanwhile, was unaware of this. He was hunched over in his laboratory, still working on the liquids and concoctions bubbling over on the table. He slowly, surely used a syringe to extract a sample from one and put it in another. Then he looked carefully, swilled it about, and then put a drop on the Varga thorn found in Isobel’s pocket. It shrivelled and died. So, something in this was killing Varga venom. Interesting. But he still hadn’t found the culprit of the madness. Hmm. Carefully, he used a chemico-panalymitric controfibulator to compare the two liquids. Bingo. The element missing in the samples of the mad. He’d found it. But was he soon enough?

 

Jamie and Zoe sat, strapped to a chair. They would be slowly inched further into the water, and then held under. A punishment for a crime they’d confessed to. Gags were put over their mouths, and they squirmed uselessly. Their feet touched the water. It was freezing cold to the touch, and gently lapped at their toes. Then, it rose to around their ankles. The liquid slowly seeped into their clothes’ fabric, soaking it. Now their knees were submerged, and the cold made them lock up. The cold onslaught continued.

 

The Doctor was hunched over a bench yet again, trying to perfect his mixture. The chemical that had been extracted from the victim’s brains, along with a little bit of solution agents and chrono-dalamythrical mythonethonide-teraphalthate to help it act faster. It made sense to him. He had done it. He mixed the chemicals together, and got a green-tinged liquid that sparkled gently in the harsh light of the lab. He put it in a syringe, and ran out to find the mad, to try and help them.

 

Dark, like waves of silence. The girl found herself alone in a sea of nothing. There was nought but being alone. It could drive you insane. Just a lukewarm sensation all over the body, nothing to feel, nothing to see, nothing to taste, nothing to smell, nothing to hear. Nothing in your senses at all. Just pitch, pointless, devouring black. Then, like a lighthouse on the shore, a beacon of light. And a rope; something to hold onto, something to keep someone sane. Something to grab -  a lifeline. Then, the light grows, and she feels things returning. Where once there was nothing, now instead there are memories. Memories of a man with a recorder, of a man clad in tartan, and of a girl. The most beautiful girl. So, they flooded back like a tidal wave, threatening to knock Isobel over. But she stayed firm, and then she woke up.

 

“D-d-d-do-doctor?” Isobel said, her vision fuzzy, her voice sickly from disuse. She slowly looked at her shirt. Drool. Oh dear. She blearily looked up at the Doctor, who just smiled, before running off with his antidote, grinning like an idiot. Because he’d saved the day. He’d done it - no-one was going to die. Everyone would continue like normal. Aside from the creature (Isobel later informed him that she had a fuzzy recollection of it’s death), everybody lives. Everybody, he thought. But not quite.

 

Zoe and Jamie struggled as their mouths finally passed below the waterline. They were allowed to have their hands to try and hold their breaths, but they knew it was hopeless. They were going to die, alone, trapped, in a cold, dark hell. Except not today. Suddenly, through the ripples of the water, they saw a lever was flicked. Their chairs flew up, releasing them from their torment. They were free. The Doctor stood there, grinning like a lunatic.

 

“So tell me, how did you get yourself accused of attempted murder and madness, eh?” The Doctor asked once they were all back in the ship.    
“Well, Doctor, we were taken into this room…” Zoe started.

 

_ \--Flashback-- _

 

_ Their heels dug into the carpet as they were dragged back, the red fibres fraying below their shoes trying to take them away. They were strapped to a chair, their heads held forwards. Jamie said “Ye cannae do this to us, we haven’t done anything! We have rights!” _

_ “Not when we’re through with you.” One of the guards said. _

_“You know you can’t make us lie! You can’t! We will always tell the truth!” Zoe screamed, desperately trying to get the attention of anyone else. A pair of headphones and a blindfold were shoved over their ears and eyes. Then, a sort of throbbing noise filled their ears. The two struggled, fought, and tried to break free. But soon, they relaxed, the noises and subliminal messages washing over them. They would tell the council a lie which they thought were the truth. And they would pay - they desperately needed a scapegoat. Their faces became blank, their eyes empty, their mouths unmoving. They became emotionless and were trained. It would_ _go away after around an hour, but by then they’d be sentenced. They would confess. They would agree to the sentence. They would confess. They would agree to the sentence. They would confess…_

 

_ \--Flashback Ends-- _

 

“So, we went into the courtroom and told them all they  _ thought  _ was true, when in reality we were lying completely. And then, when we came round again, we’d already been sentenced and there was nothing we could do about it.” Zoe finished.

“Although why they didn’t notice me saying… uhh… ‘inject chemicals into’... oh, what was it I said?” Jamie added, trying to get his point across.

“‘Inject chemicals into their bloodstreams.’” Zoe helped.

“Exactly!” Jamie continued. “If they’d known me, they’d have known that I wouldn’t understand that.”

“Precisely. But why did they want to do that, Doctor?” Isobel piped up, curious but much better.

“Well,” the Doctor started, “they wanted a scapegoat. Something to calm tensions and pacify the public. ‘Twas easy, once they worked out something to do. Meanwhile, you Isobel. Oh, dear oh dear oh dear.”

“What?” Asked Jamie.

“Well, I, umm…” Isobel started, feeling a little awkward.

“You went and got yourself prickled on the plant I specifically told you not to prick yourself on! Still, the venom’s gone now.” The Doctor said. And with that, they went on to other adventures.

**Next Time: Fading**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, there is a mid-season break to allow me to catch up and all, next episode in a week's time.

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you think of the cliffie! I personally really like it.


End file.
